WHO Technical Consultation and Update on HIV and Infant Feeding
The Report of a Technical Consultation on Prevention of HIV Infections in Pregnant Women, Mothers and their Infants and Infant Feeding and an Update of recommendations1 is now available.
At a Consultation (held in Geneva on 25-27 October 2006), researchers, programme implementers, infant feeding experts and a broad cross-section of agencies reviewed the substantial body of new evidence and experience regarding HIV and infant feeding. The aim was to further clarify and refine the existing United Nations (UN) guidance, which was based on the recommendations from a previous consultation in 2000.
The group endorsed the general principles underpinning most of the October 2000 recommendations and reached consensus on a range of new issues and their implications. New data that were not available in 2000 were reviewed. These included recent trial data on 18-month and 24-month HIV-free survival based on different infant feeding practices, and morbidity and mortality reported among HIV-exposed but uninfected infants enrolled in several ongoing trials where mothers ceased breastfeeding by six months.
The Technical Consultation Report presents a summary of the new findings, conclusions and recommendations and Annex 1 provides details of the discussions that took place.
Based on the Technical Consultation, 'HIV and infant feeding: Update' has just been produced by WHO to provide the full list of update recommendations and an explanation of key points2. It is aimed at programme managers and decision makers, and those who will be in charge of revising national guidelines on prevention of mother-to-child transmission and infant and young child feeding. Guidance will continue to be refined and clarified as new evidence becomes available.
For further information, contact: World Health Organisation, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland email: cah@who.int or hiv-aids@who.int or nutrition@who.int http://www.who.int
The updated guidance is available at http://www.who.int/child-adolescenthealth/documents/en/ The Consultation Report and other WHO documents on HIV and infant feeding can be found at: http://www.who.int/child-adolescenthealth/NUTRITION/HIV_infant.htm
1HIV and Infant Feeding. New evidence and programmatic experience. Report of a Technical Consultation. Geneva, Switzerland, 25-27 October 2006, held on behalf of the Inter-agency Task Team (IATT) on Prevention of HIV Infections in Pregnant Women, Mothers and their Infants. WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA. WHO 2007.
2WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA. HIV and Infant Feeding: Update. Geneva, WHO, 2007.
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Reference this page
WHO Technical Consultation and Update on HIV and Infant Feeding. Field Exchange 32, January 2008. p16. www.ennonline.net/fex/32/technical
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